


Ghosts

by IAmTheWinterAssassin



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Angst, Drama, Drug Use, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-09
Updated: 2016-01-09
Packaged: 2018-05-12 19:20:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5677696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmTheWinterAssassin/pseuds/IAmTheWinterAssassin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A familiar face, hallucination or bad trip? Hope isn't sure but it's putting her on edge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> Very minor spoiler. If you've played the first fifteen minutes of the game you're fine. Enjoy!

The first time Hope sees him she’s high. Lounging in the Statehouse in Goodneighbor, a pile of Jet between her and Hancock who is babbling about something she can’t follow. He’s standing in the next room, breezing past Fahrenheit and heading down the spiral staircase. Hope jumps up and runs for the door, stumbles is more like it. She has to brace herself on anything solid or she might fall on her face. She can hear her heart between her ears and her breathing is too loud as she darts down to the main floor and throws open the front door. She can hear Hancock behind her but she can’t really discern what he’s saying until he’s grabbing her by the shoulders and calling her name.

“What happened?”

She thinks. She thinks too hard, it shouldn’t take this much brain power to figure out how to speak. 

“Bad trip.” She assures him.

The second time she sees him she’s in Sanctuary, sober as a rock, sitting above the bar watching the settlers she calls friends. MacCready is besides her peppering her with drunken kisses which make her laugh. He’s down in the crowd, looking up at her with those warm brown eyes. She freezes this time, MacCready stops soon, picking up on her rigidness as she stares down at the patrons below. 

“You okay babe?”

“I need air,” she says trying to keep her eye on the not-so-stranger as she heads downstairs only to find that when she gets there he’s gone.   
She waits. She makes a point of becoming familiar with every settler and every trader that comes through the gates of Sanctuary, trying to convince herself that it was just someone with a similar face. She doesn’t see him for a long time. 

The third time she’s on the road with MacCready. He’s ahead of her listening for anything that might want to emerge from the rubble of Boston. They’re passing by what used to be Hope’s favorite clothing store, Boston Belle’s. She sees him in the broken down window and doesn’t hesitate this time. She takes off into the darkness, fumbling with her Pip-Boy to light up the dim storefront. She nearly runs into several manikins as she trips over herself searching for any sign of him. She hears footsteps and blindly follows, MacCready struggling to keep up with her unpredictable movement. 

She finds herself in the basement, MacCready calling for her upstairs. He’s there. She can see him facing the wall; his hair is longer than she remembers, his clothing much like that of other wastelanders, but it’s him.

“Nate.” She breathes, barely a whisper, her voice wavering slightly.

He begins to turn to her, slowly, so slow she wonders if she’s high again. But then there’s a sharp pain in the back of her head and the groaning growling of a feral is all she can hear as she stumbles forward. She’s bleeding, she knows that much, she readies her combat rifle and fires into the darkness trying to stay upright. There’s a yelp from MacCready as he barely dodges her bullets and begins firing at the ferals that had pulled themselves from a large vent that leads somewhere outside.   
When everything is quiet again Hope is standing in the middle of the room, eyes wide, skin pale, a bewilderment on her face MacCready has never seen before. She looks at him, mouth open, tears hanging on her lower lid. He puts out his hand and takes a step towards her and all at once she’s on the ground.  
When Hope wakes up again she’s at Sanctuary in her bed, light filtering in through the ragged cloth they use for curtains. She can smell cigarette smoke and gun powder and she knows MacCready isn’t far. She feels the pounding in her head but she can’t focus on it. She needs to know. She sits up and finds a smoldering cigarette and a broken down rifle but no MacCready. She pulls herself out of bed, throws on the robe she found in an old mall once and heads outside.   
She starts out calm, walking briskly down the street, but as she rounds Amber and Rachel’s old house and reaches the bridge over the creak she’s running up the hill for the vault. She can hear people calling her name but she ignores them as the vault lowers into the earth.

Piper, MacCready and Hancock are able to get into the vault soon after her, she’s easy to find. She’s on her knees, shoulders sagging, staring straight ahead. MacCready’s at her side, his arm pulling her in close before looking up at the cryo-pod. He’d visited the vault before with her, paid his respects, he knew what Nate looked like. But as he stares up into the frigid prison, holding a trembling Hope against him the truth is clear to see. The pod is empty.


End file.
